quinn’s twenty-fourth month ~ art therapy and two, too!

By marybethrew, on February 23rd, 2009

1-27-09

quinn requests to have his dad call me now, and he is JUST starting to understand that i can hear him when HE talks on the phone. so instead of just sitting there smiling and listening to me, he is now starting to answer questions i ask him, etc. it is so much fun. he is adorabubble.

1-28-09

quinn is VERY into helping me do things. and he wants to do them “Too!” so if you try to go ahead and do something and he is trying to grab it so he can “help” he will often say very emphatically “too!” which i think is funny. sometimes it’s “quinn too” or more often “too quinn”. but the funniest one yet was the other day i was trying to read some boring thing about vaccines and he was playing and wanted me to play. i told him “mama’s just being boring” and he ran over and tried to get whatever i was reading and said “boring too!”

1-29-09

quinn now requests the indigo girls. he is so cool.

1-30-09

quinn has been having a little trouble sleeping, now and then, and i think he is basically running a little behind on sleep (got up early a few days with a wet diaper, things like that.) last night he went to bed at 8:30 after we had a great time playing and painting and coloring together. then he asked to go to bed. but he couldn’t seem to get settled into a peaceful sleep, he did fall asleep but i kept having to go in (in my towel from the bath i attempted to take) and help him back to sleep. and i was just about ready to go to bed at 10 when he decided he just couldn’t stay in bed any longer. soooo we got up and painted and colored some more. he painted a lot actually, and it was pretty much art
therapy as far as i can tell. he wanted to use a lot of red. usually he is more of a blue green kind of painter. but red and black were popular. at one point he was doing big fast “angry” looking strokes with the big paintbrush, and i thought maybe he was getting out anger except that he had a big smile on his face… so i asked if he was having happy feeling while he painted with the red and he said “yeah!” then he said, in kinda a sad way, “mama work”. and i understood that he was having a big feeling that actually was NOT happy, but he didn’t know what to call it… and he
stopped painting for a minute and we talked about how it feels sad when mama goes to work and stuff and how it’s ok for him to feel that way and that i always love him even when i’m not there and dada takes good care of him, etc. and then i was like can i give you a hug? and he FLUNG himself at me and wrapped his arms tight around my neck. my emotionally intelligent little boy… i need to remember the painting/therapy thing to do again in the future. i have heard others say things about how it’s a great way for kids to get out their stuff, but that was pretty striking proof to me.

2-2-09

i had a headache when i went to bed and didn’t take anything but when i woke up at 3:30 i needed to get up and
take ibuprofin. i came back into the bedroom and he coughed twice, and i thought uh-oh did i wake him? and he said, “WHOA!” in response to his coughs, and i thought, yup he’s awake. then nothing. silence. i love that he just randomly talks, really enthusiastically, in his sleep.
his dad called just now as i was having lunch (he was checking in to let me know if i should come nurse Q for nap or not) and he had already fallen asleep in the backpack and it was all good… he fell asleep HARD in the backpack. jim said it’s that kind of sleep where you can’t wake him up if you try. he took him OUT of the backpack, put him in the bed, changed his diaper, took his jacket off… usually any one of those things causes him to stir, and if you try to do a second thing to him, he wakes up or needs to nurse. apparently his dad was making fun of him for how asleep he was and Q was laughing in his sleep at dada.

yesterday we went to the beach first thing (it was low tide and the agate beds are exposed- i guess it’s only in late winter) and we went to this place where the beach was just covered in rocks and shells and agates. the thing i kept finding were fossil shells i mean i found TONS of them, and that was even with quinn wanting to be carried for a
good half of the trip. so it was nice to do some treasure hunting. and quinn did have fun for a while, running around behind me, picking up rocks and playing with us. so it was cool. then quinn and i went to trina and noah’s to play and have lunch. and then we went home for nap time. later as we were pulling into the driveway quinn looked over his shoulder (because the ocean is behind us as we pull into the driveway) and said, “hi beach! love you!”

2-3-09

last weekend beach trip- sand castles and anemones

people sleeping in the dump truck- night night people!

feeding baby kitty is his new passion in life

nacho night

new paints

hair in braids quinn looking handsome (“pantsome”)

last night, slip and slide with the fingerpaints on the kitchen floor. he would get up, go across the room, then turn around and run and slide through the paint. i’m serious. the entire kitchen floor was green. little green footprints. you can see the whole sides of his legs are green. he is probably bruised today from falling so many times. then he
went in the bath and was saying “i’m sam! eggs n ham!” while i cleaned up the kitchen.

a lump under the purple blanket: “where did quinn go” is such a favorite game. he just giggles and giggles under the
blankets. and pretends to sleep. and giggles some more.

“rules do not give life
the Tao gives life
and the Tao is seen in butterflies
and in galaxies.
if children were trusted to discover God
in the center of their own hearts
the world would be at peace.”

the parents’ tao te ching

2-17-09

he is trying to avoid a diaper change by hiding behind the curtain, where he realizes he can look outside and see
his dad chopping the wood (dad bum woob!) he is looking extremely sleepy by this time in late afternoon with only the half hour nap…

2-20-09

seems like quinn is growing an inch a day right now.

the happy spot

quinn’s second birthday:

his dad got him an 8 foot octopus kite (they told him at the store it was the easiest and most indestructible, and it survived and did indeed get flown at the beach.

later, coloring his balloons.

baking his own bday cupcakes (“muffin cakes” he called them. same cake as last year, but in cupcake form) the eggs are from my office mate who has ducks. they are actually green eggs. he was really excited about green eggs.

devouring sushi (his dad rolled sushi for dinner. yum.)

i was noticing his self awareness, that he knows if he is hungry or not. his dad wanted to give him another bite of sushi on birthday night, (which he had already devoured a ton of, plus all the “toe-food” out of his miso soup) and he said, “no. mouth too full.” this morning i asked if he wanted cereal (he had just woken up and had a bunch of milk) and he said, “no. tongue too full.” he is hilariously awesome for inventing such things to say. i have occasionally asked if his tummy feels full but that is not a common phrase, i don’t think. i just think that is his way of understanding eating and where the food goes.

he blew out his “2” birthday candle about 6 times. he didn’t eat the cupcake though. mostly he was infatuated with his play table and playing with his new garden toys.

i think quinn was really overwhelmed by the birthday, even though it was so low key. he slipped on his kite and hit his head at one point, and afterwards everything he said for like an hour came out in sob form. “i need JUICE in there! waaahhhh!!!” or if his toy fell down “people down, ahhhhh!!!!” you get the picture. he was just totally overstimulated. his nap was 3 hours later than normal… went to bed at 10 which is 2 hours later than normal…. though he did that again last night… (as i was putting him to bed at 9 he asked me to take a bath. so i let him because
that helps him AND me settle down.)

so he was just busy all day, doing one thing then jumping to the next. you can see him in the balloon coloring (his idea) pictures, he is post nap but late in the evening there, still going full throttle. and he didn’t even open half his presents yet like the kitchen set. he loves his new “play table” as it is called. yesterday he wouldn’t leave it. he’d play there and color there and when it was time to eat, he’d eat there, sitting in his little green and yellow chair.